Mauritian actuary scales highest peaks

Jaysen Arumugum from Aon Hewitt in London aspired to be the first of his nation, Mauritius, to climb the highest peak on each continent. Having already succeeded in climbing five of the peaks — including Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Kosciusko, Aconcagua and Denali — Jaysen set his sights on climbing the biggest of them all, Mount Everest. On 26 May 2011, he achieved that goal.

His original plan was to raise £8,848 as Mount Everest is 8,848 metres high. For his charity he chose Breast Cancer Care, as his cousin was diagnosed at a young age and he appreciates the work this organisation does for the one in eight women affected by breast cancer.

Mr Arumugum has raised £10,033.48 so far, and counting. This is well deserved considering the challenges he had to face, such as acclimatisation, frostbite, a retinal haemorrhage, hearing of the death of a climber he knew in another team, weather windows and jet streams, to name but a few. And this was before he got anywhere near the summit…

The summit push consisted of 40 hours of no sleep, limited water and a few disastrous obstacles such as losing his water bottle. Once leaving the summit, it was a real fight for survival before crawling the last 100m to the first camp below the Death Zone and passing out with exhaustion.

This is only a snippet of a fantastic story of someone pushing themselves to the limit to achieve their personal goals, and at the same time raising over £10,000 for an excellent cause.

Congratulations to Jaysen for his determination, perseverance and endurance on his Everest conquest.